(c) Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association, Deerfield MA. All rights reserved.Contact us for information about using this image.

label levels:

Seeking out panoramic views from mountain summits became very popular in the 1800s. Some mountain top views became especially popular tourist destinations, such as Mt. Tom, in the Connecticut River Valley in Massachusetts. A cable car railway built in 1897 allowed easy access to its summit. President William McKinley described Mt. Tom as "the most beautiful mountain out look in the whole world" after he visited the mountain in 1899. This postcard shows a tourist-laden cable car ascending the mountain's steep side through a deep rock cut. The car was named after the 17th century surveyor Elizur Holyoke.